Congress to Consider Raising Tobacco-Buying Age to 21 -- 4th Update
April 18 2019 - 6:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Jennifer Maloney
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to introduce
legislation raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to
21 from 18, a move that public-health advocates and tobacco
companies hope would curb the use of e-cigarettes among youths.
More than a dozen states have passed or enacted laws raising the
minimum age to 21 and others are considering doing so. Sen.
McConnell's announcement Thursday follows the introduction earlier
this month of similar bills in the House.
Altria Group Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC, the two
biggest U.S. cigarette manufacturers, both support an increase of
the minimum age to 21, as does Juul Labs Inc., a startup whose
e-cigarettes are blamed by health officials for a surge in underage
smoking.
Laws raising the age to 21 "fight one of the largest
contributors to this problem: sharing by legal-age peers," Juul
Chief Executive Kevin Burns said.
Youth use of e-cigarettes jumped 78% from 2017 to 2018 -- to one
out of every five high-school students -- thanks largely to the
popularity of USB-shaped vaporizers made by Juul.
The increase has prompted a regulatory crackdown on the
e-cigarette industry. The Food and Drug Administration in March
issued new sales restrictions that will effectively ban convenience
stores and gasoline stations from selling most flavored
e-cigarettes. The passage of a bill raising the legal age
nationwide to 21 could alleviate that regulatory pressure, analysts
say.
"For some time, I've been hearing from the parents who are
seeing an unprecedented spike in vaping among their teenage
children," Sen. McConnell said, adding that his bill would exempt
military-service members. The Kentucky Republican said he would
introduce his bill in May.
Altria, which makes Marlboro, has been lobbying for the move at
the state and federal levels, last week taking out ads in The Wall
Street Journal, the Washington Post and other news outlets. The
tobacco giant has much at stake: In December, it invested $12.8
billion for a minority stake in Juul.
"This is the most effective action to reverse rising underage"
use of e-cigarettes, Altria CEO Howard Willard said in a news
release Thursday. According to the Food and Drug Administration,
the most common way children and teens obtain e-cigarettes is from
someone they know. Mr. Willard and other proponents of the policy
change say a minimum age of 21 would ensure that high-school
students wouldn't have classmates who could purchase e-cigarettes
for them.
Over the long term, a move to 21 could hasten the decline of
cigarette sales. Among people who smoke cigarettes daily, 87% first
used a cigarette by age 18, according to a 2014 Surgeon General
report.
About 5% of adult tobacco consumers are between 18 and 20 years
old, Ms. Kaufman said. She added that retailers estimated that a
nationwide increase of the minimum age to 21 could cause tobacco
sales to drop about 4% in the short term.
Shares of Altria and BAT fell 3.2% and 1.5%, respectively, in
New York trading on Thursday.
Write to Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 18, 2019 18:08 ET (22:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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